It is becoming relatively common to exchange electronically stored documents between parties to a transaction, for instance via a widely distributed information network such as the Internet of the World Wide Web (WWW). A common problem with the Internet is a lack of secure communication channels. Thus, in order for hospitals, governments, banks, stockbrokers, and credit card companies to make use of the Internet, privacy and security must be ensured. One approach to solving the aforementioned problem uses data encryption prior to transmission. In a prior art system, a host computer system is provided with an encryption unit, for example an encryption processor that is in electrical communication with at least a memory circuit for storing at least a private encryption key. When information is to be transmitted from the host computer system to a recipient via the Internet and is of a confidential nature, the information is first passed to the encryption processor for encryption using the stored private key. Typically, a same private key is used every time a data encryption operation is performed. Alternatively, an encryption key is selected from a finite set of private encryption keys that is stored in the at least a memory circuit in electrical communication with the encryption processor.
Of course, a data encryption operation that is performed by an encryption processor is a mathematical algorithm in which an input data value, for instance a hashed version of an electronic document, is the only variable value. It is, therefore, possible to optimize the encryption processor to perform a desired encryption function using a least amount of processor resources. Additionally, in the prior art encryption units the optimized encryption processor is typically separate from the microprocessor of the host computer system, because it is best optimized in this way.
Several standards exist today for privacy and strong authentication on the Internet through encryption/decryption. Typically, encryption/decryption is performed based on algorithms which are intended to allow data transfer over an open channel between parties while maintaining the privacy of the message contents. This is accomplished by encrypting the data using an encryption key by the sender and decrypting it using a decryption key by the receiver. In symmetric key cryptography, the encryption and decryption keys are the same.
Encryption algorithms are typically classified into public-key and secret key algorithms. In secret-key algorithms, keys are secret whereas in public-key algorithms, one of the keys is known to the general public. Block ciphers are representative of the secret-key cryptosystems in use today. Usually, for block ciphers, symmetric keys are used. A block cipher takes a block of data, typically 32–128 bits, as input data and produces the same number of bits as output data. The encryption and decryption operations are performed using the key, having a length typically in the range of 56–128 bits. The encryption algorithm is designed such that it is very difficult to decrypt a message without knowing the key.
In addition to block ciphers, Internet security protocols also rely on public-key based algorithms. A public key cryptosystem such as the Rivest, Shamir, Adelman (RSA) cryptosystem described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,667 issued to Pogue and Rivest uses two keys, one of which is secret—private—and the other of which is publicly available. Once someone publishes a public key, anyone may send that person a secret message encrypted using that public key; however, decryption of the message can only be accomplished by use of the private key. The advantage of such public-key encryption is private keys are not distributed to all parties of a conversation beforehand. In contrast, when symmetric encryption is used, multiple secret keys are generated, one for each party intended to receive a message, and each secret key is privately communicated. Attempting to distribute secret keys in a secure fashion results in a similar problem as that faced in sending the message using only secret-key encryption; this is typically referred to as the key distribution problem.
Key exchange is another application of public-key techniques. In a key exchange protocol, two parties can agree on a secret key even if their conversation is intercepted by a third party. The Diffie-Hellman exponential key exchange method, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,770, is an example of such a protocol.
Most public-key algorithms, such as RSA and Diffie-Hellman key exchange, are based on modular exponentiation, which is the computation of α× mod p. This expression means “multiply α by itself × times, divide the answer by p, and take the remainder.” This is very computationally expensive to perform, for the following reason. In order to perform this operation, many repeated multiplication operations and division operations are required. Techniques such as Montgomery's method, described in “Modular Multiplication Without Trial Division,” from Mathematics of Computation, Vol. 44, No. 170 of April 1985, can reduce the number of division operations required but do not overcome this overall computational expense. In addition, for present day encryption systems the numbers used are very large (typically 1024 bits or more), so the multiply and divide instructions found in common CPUs cannot be used directly. Instead, special algorithms that break down the large multiplication operations and division operations into operations small enough to be performed on a CPU are used. These algorithms usually have a run time proportional to the square of the number of machine words involved. These factors result in multiplication of large numbers being a very slow operation. For example, a Pentium® processor can perform a 32×32-bit multiply in 10 clock cycles. A 2048-bit number can be represented in 64 32-bit words. A 2048×2048-bit multiply requires 64×64 separate 32×32-bit multiplication operations, which takes 40960 clocks on the Pentium® processor. An exponentiation with a 2048-bit exponent requires up to 4096 multiplication operations if done in the straightforward fashion, which requires about 167 million clock cycles. If the Pentium processor is running at 166 MHZ, the entire operation requires roughly one second. Of course, the division operations add further time to the overall computation times. Clearly, a common CPU such as a Pentium cannot expect to do key generation and exchange at any great rate.
Pipeline processors comprising a plurality of separate processing elements arranged in a serial array, and in particular a large number of processing elements, are known in the prior art and are particularly well suited for executing data encryption algorithms. Two types of pipeline processor are known: processors of an in-one-end-and-out-the-other nature, wherein there is a single processing direction; and, bi-directional processors of an in-and-out-the-same-end nature, wherein there is a forward processing direction and a return processing direction. Considering a specific example of a bi-directional pipeline processor, a first data block is read from a memory buffer into a first processing element of the serial array, which element performs a first stage of processing and then passes the first data block on to a second processing element. The second processing element performs a second stage of processing while, in parallel, the first processing element reads a second data block from the memory buffer and performs a same first processing stage on the second data block. In turn, each data block propagates in a step-by-step fashion from one processing element to a next processing element along the forward processing direction of the serial array. At each step, there is a processing stage that performs a same mathematical operation on each data block that is provided thereto. Simultaneously, a result that is calculated at each processing element is provided to a previous processing element of the serial array, with respect to the return processing direction, which results comprise in aggregate the processed data returned by the encryption processor. This assembly-line approach to data processing, using a large number of processing elements, is a very efficient way of performing the computationally expensive data encryption algorithms described previously. Of course, the application of pipeline processors for performing computationally expensive processing operations is other than limited strictly to data encryption algorithms, which have been discussed in detail only by way of example.
It is a disadvantage of the prior art bi-directional pipeline processors that each processing element of a serial array must be time-synchronized with every other processing element of a same serial array. Time-synchronization between processing elements is necessary for the control of timing the gating of data blocks from one processor element to a next processor element in the forward direction, and for timing the gating of processed data from one processor element to a previous processor element in the return direction. A clock typically controls the progression of data blocks along the pipeline in each one of the forward direction and the return direction. Unfortunately without careful clock distribution design, as a clock signal progresses along the pipeline there are incremental delays between each stage, as for example delays caused by the resistance and capacitance that is inherent in the clock circuit. In earlier, slower acting pipeline processors, such delays were not important, and did not adversely affect the overall operation, or calculation. With faster operation, these delays are becoming significant, requiring more accurate and precise clock distribution methods.
Further, in order to read data from a memory buffer, for example data for processing by the pipeline processor, the first processing stage in the serial array must also be time-synchronized with the memory buffer. This further encourages synchronous clock distribution within a pipeline processor.
It would be advantageous to provide a system and a method for processing data using a pipeline processor absent a need to synchronize a distributed clock value that is provided to each processing element of the pipeline processor. Such a system would be easily implemented using a relatively simple circuit design, in which large blocks of processor elements are fabricated from a series of processor element sub-units.